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Worried about buying online?
Here's what www.webopedia.com
has to say The e-commerce business
is all about making money and then finding ways to make
more money. Of course, it's hard to make (more) money,
when consumers don't feel safe executing a transaction
on your Web site. That's where SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
comes into play. Understanding how SSL affects e-commerce
business can also potentially help you to unlock (more)
money from your customers.
What is SSL?
Since its introduction in 1994, SSL has been the de
facto standard for e-commerce transaction security,
and it's likely to remain so well into the future.
SSL is all about encryption. SSL encrypts data, like
credit cards numbers (as well other personally identifiable
information), which prevents the "bad guys"
from stealing your information for malicious intent.
You know that you're on an SSL protected page when the
address begins with "https" and there is a
padlock icon at the bottom of the page (and in the case
of Mozilla Firefox in the address bar as well).
Your browser encrypts the data and sends to the receiving
Web site using either 40-bit or 128-bit encryption.
Your browser alone cannot secure the whole transaction
and that's why it's incumbent upon e-commerce site builders
to do their part. SSL Certificates
At the other end of the equation, and of greatest
importance to e-commerce site builders, is the SSL certificate.
The SSL certificate sits on a secure server and is used
to encrypt the data and to identify the Web site. The
SSL certificate helps to prove the site belongs to who
it says it belongs to and contains information about
the certificate holder, the domain that the certificate
was issued to, the name of the Certificate Authority
who issued the certificate, the root and the country
it was issued in. SSL certificates come in 40-bit
and 128-bit varieties, though 40-bit encryption has
been hacked. As such, you definitely should be looking
at getting a 128-bit certificate. View MyTub's
SSL certificate here
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